Graham Norton has performed at Jongleurs

The club, at Greenside Place on Leith Street, is expected to be ready for the end of July.

It will create 50 jobs and forms part of a �3m development which also includes the Walkabout Inn.

Jongleurs helped launch the careers of comedians such as Harry Enfield and Julian Clary.

The club will also be newest purpose-built venue at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

A fire in the city's old town in December damaged a number of the festival's long-running sites, including the Gilded Balloon, which was destroyed.

The club will have 300 and 100 capacity venues operating during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and is hosting a line-up of alternative comedy, theatre and comedy plays.

Dylan Moran is among the comedians who have passed through the club's doors

Simon Kaye, of owner Regent Inns, said: "We are very excited about the new Jongleurs, in Scotland's thriving capital city.

"It will no doubt be a major contributor to the Edinburgh Festival, bringing our unique brand of night out to the burgeoning success of the Fringe."

Festival acts include 2003 Perrier Comedy Award nominees Jimmy Carr and Phil Nicol, Olivier Award winner Tracie Bennett with the musical drama Last Song of the Nightingale, and the Spike Milligan Trust grand final of the Jongleurs Stand and Deliver competition.

The first Jongleurs comedy club was opened in Battersea in 1983 by former drama teacher Maria Kempinska, who is still responsible for booking all the acts countrywide.

Stars who cut their teeth in the London club include Ben Elton, Jo Brand, Paul Merton, Rory Bremner and Josie Lawrence.